title: Survey of needle-stick injuries in paediatric health personnel of 5 university hospitals in Tehran.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the prevalence and correlates of needle-stick injury in the health personnel of the Paediatric Department of five university-affiliated hospitals in Tehran, from April till June 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Physicians undergoing paediatric training and nurses working in the paediatric departments filled up a pre-designed questionnaire. Relevant variables were compared between doctors and nurses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three-hundred fifty-five health personnel were enrolled. Of these 49.3% had incurred needle stick injury at least once, 36.7% doctors and 54.9% nurses (p=0.002). Nurses fared better than the doctors as regards knowledge about hazards of improper needle disposal. Correct answers from doctors and nurses respectively were: 45.6% vs. 59.3% about needle separation and 41.9% vs. 81.2% about recapping, (p=0.02 and <0.001). Doctors 11.1% and Nurses 37.7% believed injections to be better than oral medication for children, (p<0.001), however, 68.9% of doctors and 46.6% of nurses believed that parents preferred injections to oral medicines for their children, (p<0.001). Only 26.6% knew about auto-disable syringes. Vaccinated against Hepatitis B was present in 92.7%. Doctors 58.7% and 55.3% nurses knew HBV to be the most common needle transmitted infection, (p=0.56).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Needle-stick injuries are common among Paediatric health care personnel and their knowledge about prevention strategies is suboptimal. Most, health personnel are immunized against Hepatitis B.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Infections Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farideh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shiva
authors.forename: Anahita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanaei
authors.forename: Ahmad Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Shamshiri
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ghotbi
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D016602:Needlestick Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009726:Nurses / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010372:Pediatrics; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires